This invention relates generally to dust collectors used in industrial applications and the like to remove particles and other foreign matter which is entrained and carried by a flow of transport fluid, usually air, and more particularly to a dust collector of the type that includes an arrangement for cleaning the filter elements by removing the collected particles and foreign matter therefrom.
As set forth in greater detail in Williams U.S. Pat. No. 5,110,331, the relatively slow rate at which foreign matter can be removed from filter elements in conventional dust collectors utilizing reverse pulse of cleaning air, and the problem of reentrainment of the foreign matter temporarily removed from the surface of the filter elements create a significant limitation in terms of the air-to-cloth ratio (e.g., the ratio of the volume of transport air to the area of the filtering media presented by the filter elements), as well as other related problems. The improved dust collector in the Williams patent significantly reduced the degree of reentrainment of the foreign matter and increased substantially the air-to-cloth ratio of a dust collector of a given size in many industrial applications.
However, in some industrial applications, the presence of entrained foreign matter consisting of both granular-type materials (e.g., granular dust) and more fibrous-type material, such as lint, creates problems for the self-cleaning arrangement in the dust collector, primarily because the reverse pulse jets applied by the self-cleaning apparatus to the filter element obtains excellent results in terms of removing the granular-type foreign matter, but such jets have little effect in removing the more tenacious fibrous-type materials which tend to become more intermeshed with the somewhat roughened surface of the pleated filter media typically used in the filter elements in such dust collectors.
In accordance with the present invention, a unique self-cleaning arrangement is provided which effectively removes both types of foreign matter from the filter element, and the dust collector of the present invention also significantly enhances, in one housing, the quality of the transport air after it has been cleaned and is recirculated back to an environment such as a textile processing mill.